Chris' Christian Blog

January 26, 2021

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Chris Breva has given me the privilege of preparing some prompts for this group. I am very grateful for this honor.

Since today will be my first prompt, I would like to return to the most basic Bible verse of our Christian lives, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Prompt: How would you explain the abstract word, "believe" to a concrete-thinker? This will help us lead others to Christ. (Luke 19:10)

Jay O'Toole I believe this is an excellent question! How many of us know people who claim to believe in God and claim that they believe Jesus is the Son of God, but fail to have a relationship with Him? If you ask most of the men in this building they will tell you they believe but they do not act on that belief. I think we need to explain that there is a difference in simply acknowledging that something is a fact and putting that fact to use. James 2:19 tells us that simply believing Jesus is the resurrected Son of God is not enough. James acknowledges that even Satan believes Jesus raised from the dead.

Believe as used in John 3:16 is from the Greek word πιστεύω which means believing in a manner that causes the believer to take action. I can believe medication is going to help me until I am dead. However, if that belief does not actually result in my swallowing the medication or using it, then the belief is useless. Belief must result in action. This is why Jesus told Nicodemus in this same passage that a person must be born again. Belief, in this case, must result in action. The actions required are repentance.

"Prompt: I was cruising with Buck Rogers on the way to the moon and found this planet:

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Write about this poem in your Blog entry today."

This poem is about dreams. Dreams are weird, elusive things. Some would have us believe that dreams are latent expressions of our subconscious. I personally believe that dreams are the brain's way of processing all the information collected that day. Surgeons have proven numerous times that during brain surgery procedures in which they keep the patient conscious they can probe an area of the brain and the patient will remember the specific conditions of a situation that happened decades earlier. I think dreams are the brain being a good secretary and filing thoughts and input into memory cells.

I liked the imagery in this poem. The writer has a good imagination and dreamed the dream state vividly.

"Prompt: Winter Rain"

I am not a big fan of winter rain, but I would much rather have rain than snow.

"Prompt: What do you think about the feeling and the idea of responsibility? How it can be instilled in people, and what encourages it the best?"

This sounds almost like a political question. Many people are asking how responsible the last election was. I guess time will tell. I honestly do not believe you can instill responsibility into people. At one time you could, but not now.